A Strategy To Become a Better Decision Maker

If you want to improve your decision making, here’s a simple trick: remove the option of a bad decision beforehand.

I call this making a pre-decision.

A pre-decisions is designing the environment for decision making before an actual decision needs to be made. It is a way to take willpower out of the equation of decision making. With pre-decisions, a bad decision is not an option.

So, how do you design the environment for decision making? Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Suppose you want to wake up at 6 am tomorrow. Using willpower only, you would probably set your alarm for 6 am and try to make it a point to get out of bed when it goes off. This may work, but it is hard to be consistent at it. A pre-decision would be to set another alarm the night before at the time you need to be in bed in order to wake up early. Your pre-decision to go to bed by 9:30-10 pm the night before will create an environment where waking up at 6 am becomes much easier due to you having the proper rest.

Another example is how to stay faithful in your relationship. One way to do this is to remove (or greatly reduce) the option of being in a situation where you have to make the decision to stay faithful in the moment. Here’s what works for me as a pre-decision – I only go to day parties or dinners when I want to hang out. It is much harder to end up in a compromised situation when there’s light outside or with a full belly. In those situations, I’m reducing my options with a pre-decision and creating an environment where the likelihood of a romantic proposition is much lower.

Pre-decisions will help you have better outcomes across your life because you’ll remove bad options. No bad options leaves you with only good decisions as choices. Good decisions lead to a better life.